Blood Type Associated with Stroke Risk

A study presented at a conference of the American Heart Association associated a personâ€™s blood type with stroke risk. People who whose blood type is O, the most common blood type, are said to be less likely to suffer from a stroke when compared against people whose blood type is AB, and women whose blood type is B.

Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Harvardâ€™s Brigham and Womenâ€™s Hospital and one of the leaders of the study, said: â€œThere’s increasing evidence that blood type might influence risk of chronic diseaseâ€¦ It’s not at the level where we want to alarm people and we want to make that clear. But it’s one more element of risk that people would want to know about, and it could give them one more reason to keep blood pressure and cholesterol in line.â€

The study, led by Dr. Lu Qi of Brigham and Womenâ€™s Hospital, involved an analysis of data from 90,000 men and women, who participated in two observational health studies that spanned a period of more than 20 years.

The researchers found that in the 2,901 strokes that occurred among the study participants, people whose blood type was AB had 26 percent increased risk of suffering from a stroke, when compared against people whose blood type was O. In addition, women whose blood type was B had 15 percent increased risk of suffering from a stroke, when compared against people whose blood type was O.